


Triumph in Dust

by teabeakay



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Rewrite, Gen, I didn't like this scene so I fixed it, S7 Divergent, Spoilers, canon-compliant through S6, s7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 22:59:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15716838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teabeakay/pseuds/teabeakay
Summary: In this reality, it ends with Shiro on his feet.





	Triumph in Dust

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted a different ending so I wrote one. Thanks to [copilotsheith](https://copilotsheith.tumblr.com/) for excellent and patient beta, to [sol1056](https://sol1056.tumblr.com/) for edits, and boundless meta and analysis chat, and  sebayard  for a last minute hail mary beta when my nerve began to fail me.

Sendak’s fist arcs towards Shiro’s face. He brings his own up to meet it with a screech of metal and shower of sparks. 

Shiro’s not sure he can beat him. His helmet is gone. His Garrison armour is cracked and charred. But his vision is limned in glowing blue-white. His blood is roaring through his veins. And for the first time since he drew true breath again, he can feel a flutter at the edges of his awareness, a dawning presence at the back of his mind. Help is on the way. He must only be patient. He need only focus. 

As Sendak draws back to strike again Shiro leaps forward, the wind urging him on as he charges up the sloping ship. With blistering momentum he drops to his knees beneath the careening arm, slides, vaults to his feet,  _ thrusts - _

And beholds Sendak’s claws at his jugular, as Shiro’s metal fingers circle Sendak’s throat. Patience now. Focus now. He can already feel the ship lifting beneath him. 

“Champion,” Sendak rasps. “Monster. Look at you, stripped of your arm and your armour. Where is your bayard? Where is your  _ Lion _ ? You’re not a Paladin, not anymore. You’re barely even a warrior.” He shoves forwards to snarl in Shiro’s face, not even grimacing as Shiro’s fingers tighten on his throat. “Give in, broken soldier. Embrace your death.”

A year ago these words would have shaken Shiro to the core. Now he merely laughs and speaks the truth as it rises from his heart. “I already died, Sendak. I gave my life defending the universe. I spent an age in the void with only my demons. I lived again through sheer force of love. And I’ve learned something you could never understand. The Lion doesn’t make the Paladin. The Paladin makes the Lion.”

In one moment, white light flares from Shiro’s right arm.

In the next, unstoppable encounters immovable. 

With a cataclysmic boom, Galra cruiser meets Terran dirt.

When his vision clears, Shiro finds himself battered, bruised, and bloodied, but alive. Turns out it takes more than being electrified by a glowing alien crystal, a fall from the upper atmosphere, and crashing into the hard pan surface of Earth at what he’s guessing was about 9.8 meters per second squared, to get rid of him.

Rising to his feet, he beholds Sendak staggering through the dust. Behind him, hope wings swiftly towards them. 

“Surrender, Sendak,” he calls, gesturing to the wreck of the cruiser where it looms over them both. “Your ships are destroyed. Your rule here is over.”

He’s entirely unsurprised when the Galra spits mud and crows, “Victory, or Death!”

No matter. Five minds reach out to Shiro’s. Five shadows fall on the earth. Five questions posed, five offers made. 

Between two heartbeats Shiro chooses the soul of starlight and void and makes his request. Acceptance comes in an instant. Once he did this to Shiro. Now he will do it for him.  

Darkness manifests in the mouth of the Black Lion and hurtles through the air. The Black Bayard slices Sendak’s robotic arm from his shoulder with careless ease. With the Bayard raised in one hand, the other cocked on his hip, Keith drawls, “You forgot, Sendak. A Paladin of Voltron never fights alone.” His furious violet eyes fall on Shiro, waiting. 

As the Commander crumples to his knees, Shiro strides forward, gripping his foe’s chin in one hand, holding him up and capturing his gaze. The shock and surprise he sees there is immensely satisfying.

He contemplates a killing blow, but only for a moment. He doesn’t need it, and Sendak doesn’t deserve it. Because he wants to, though, he leans down and whispers, “Your victory is ashes, and your death will be at time’s cruel hands.” Then, with a single sharp blow to the temple, Zarkon’s most faithful warrior lies prone and defenseless at Shiro’s feet. He leaves him there. 

Straightening, he wipes the sweat from his eyes. As he sucks in a deep breath he feels something within him rupture, burst, a long-held tightness dissolving, poison washing away. On the shaky exhale a wave of release floods his entire body with triumph and violent relief. It rushes through his limbs and gushes from his eyes, leaving him panting, grinning viciously through hot tears, feeling so light he could take flight at any moment. 

A gentle voice grounds him. “Shiro.”

He grasps Keith’s offered hand and is pulled into strong arms. They stand clasped together, quaking a little, murmuring their newest call and response, until Keith pulls back with a soft gasp. 

Shiro follows Keith’s gaze down to their still-joined hands, where a calm white glow is crawling up their forearms. It spreads across their torsos, down their legs, up their necks, blinding for a brief moment before it bursts in fizzing motes. 

In its wake Shiro’s limbs are graced once more with the familiar form of the Paladin armour. Now, however, the chestplate motif glows a blue-white counterpoint to Keith’s newly black version. 

“Matches your hair, Captain Shirogane,” is all Keith says. His smile says the rest. 

As one, they turn to face the other Paladins now racing towards them.

Hunk arrives first, leaping and gushing. “Did that just happen? That just happened!”

Pidge and Allura are hot on his heels, babbling excitedly together about Balmeran crystals, alchemy, and the Chosen. 

Lance skids to a stop and just howls, “White Paladin!” over and over and over again. 

Shiro grins. From the sky, the crystal heart of the Atlas calls to him gently but insistently, impatient to begin. 

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive crit welcome if you tell me your favourite line first.
> 
> Find me getting way too deep into Voltron on [tumblr](https://tbkdoesfandom.tumblr.com/).


End file.
